The Walker Collaborative was in town last week with one mission on its mind: to get feedback on how to revitalize downtown through the development of a master plan.

The group, led by Philip Walker of Nashville, Tenn., conducted several focus groups for downtown stakeholders such as business operators, land owners, real estate professionals and public officials. From all accounts, The Walker Collaborative knows what it’s doing when the aim is downtown revitalization. The group boasts a strong track record of successful projects. Taking a quick look at walkercollaborative.com you can’t help but get a little excited about what could be.

What we like most about this process is the strong desire this organization has to get public input. We’re sure as they sat through multiple meetings over the course of two days they heard many of the same ideas and concerns, but to their credit they noted every suggestion and asked questions that some of us had not asked ourselves. The Walker Collaborative seemed to truly care about getting local buy-in.

We were also impressed that they really didn’t look to direct or control the groups; they just listened and facilitated great discussion. The Walker Collaborative wants to understand our downtown and how it interacts or could interact with the rest of the community before presenting the first idea. It concerns us when public money is spent on a consultant that already knows what to do before they set foot in our town. That’s not the case with this group.

But the most significant element of this process is that if you didn’t make it to the public meeting you still have a chance. In about two months (we’ll let you know the exact dates), The Walker Collaborative is coming back, and they want to spend some in-depth time with the community conducting additional workshops to get interactive feedback from us all. You don’t have to own property downtown, be a business owner or a public official, you just have to care about your community and be willing to share your thoughts. Who knows? You may have the one great idea.

So, will you have some time to help set a vision for downtown and your community? We hope so.